It is not easy to destroy the greatest empire in the history of mankind. The 20th
Century was the American Century, but as with all empires, the
combination of hubris, monetary debasement, imperial overreach and
delusional overconfidence have set in motion the inevitable downfall of
the American Empire. The policies, decisions, beliefs, and institutions
implemented over decades have led the country to the threshold of
financial disaster. Based on my observations, a catastrophic combination
of demographics, fiat currency debasement, titanic levels of debt,
smothering taxation, power in the hands of the few and Wall Street greed
have led us to peak Empire. It will be downhill from here as we
experience collapse, revolution and ultimately, retribution for the
guilty and presumed guilty. I have already addressed the Baby Boomer
generation’s contribution to our current plight, to the delight and
accolades of Boomers across the land in For a Few Dollars More – Part One. The
Boomers were a victim of their size and the timing of their arrival on
the scene of empire collapse. Their delusions of debt based wealth and
me first attitude could not have been satiated without the creation of
the Federal Reserve and the institution of the personal income tax in
1913.

“When a man’s got money in his pocket he begins to appreciate peace.” – Joe – Fistful of Dollars

“Every town has a boss.” – Joe – Fistful of Dollars

In the Old West of the 1800’s, before the creation of the Federal
Reserve, money in your pocket meant gold or silver. If Joe were to
repeat that line today, he would change it slightly:

“When a man thinks he’s got money in his pocket he begins to
appreciate the good things in life like McMansions, BMWs, government
provided retirement, government provided healthcare, and delusions of
ever increasing wealth.”

Man made inflation is a glorious invention for the men who invented
it. For the people who deal with it every day, not so much. Joe knew
that every town had a boss. If you didn’t know who the boss was in the
United States of America before 2008, you know now. Ben Bernanke and the
Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is the boss of this town.

Crony Capitalism Pays for the Cronies

Without Federal Reserve intervention in the financial markets since
September 2008, the biggest banks in the world would have entered
bankruptcy liquidation. The U.S. economy would have experienced a 10% to
20% fall in GDP. The unemployment rate would have soared above 15%. The
stock market would have fallen 70%. Wealthy bondholders and
stockholders would have seen their wealth cut in half. Incumbent
politicians would have all been thrown out of office. The richest
Americans, constituting the ruling class, would have borne the brunt of
the pain.

In a true capitalist system, organizations and people who assumed too
much risk and made poor decisions would have failed. But the United
States does not have a capitalist system. We have a corporate fascist
economic system where a small cartel of bankers, military weapons
suppliers, and mega-corporations set the agenda for the country through
their complete capture of politicians and the mainstream corporate
media. At the height of the crisis in 2008, President George Bush
revealed whose side he chose:

“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market
system, to make sure the economy doesn’t collapse. I feel a sense of
obligation to my successor to make sure there is not a, you know, a huge
economic crisis. Look, we’re in a crisis now. I mean, this is — we’re
in a huge recession, but I don’t want to make it even worse.”

George Bush was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He was not
trying to save the free-market system, because we didn’t have a free
market system. He was saving his fellow billionaires under the cover of
saving the average American. Bush knew as much about saving our economic
system as he knew about when to declare mission accomplished in Iraq.
He turned the task of saving the free market system over to his
multi-billionaire Goldman Sachs Secretary of Treasury Hank Paulson and
the real boss of Washington DC, Ben Bernanke. These noble American
patriots proceeded to save the top 1% richest Americans on the backs of
the American middle class. They did it under the guise of keeping the
country out of a Depression. Those who committed the crimes and
destroyed the worldwide financial system not only didn’t get punished,
they were enriched by the actions of Paulson and Bernanke. This entire
sordid chapter in the history of the American empire from 2008 until the
imminent collapse, sometime before 2015, will leave future historians
dumbfounded at the utter insanity and foolishness of the decisions that
were made during the death throes of the empire. Not only did George
Bush not save the free-market system, but he drove a stake thru its
heart.

To boil the entire 2008 financial collapse down to one word, it would be: DEBT.

Three decades of ever increasing levels of consumer, corporate, and
government debt eventually led to an unprecedented implosion. It was as
predictable in 2008, to those who understand the fiat monetary system,
as it was to Ludwig von Mises decades ago:

“There is no means of avoiding a final collapse
of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only
whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of a voluntary
abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total
catastrophe of the currency system involved.”

Federal Reserve – Destroyer of Worlds

The 2008 crash and the 1929 crash were manmade disasters. Alan
Greenspan and Ben Bernanke created the atmosphere and conditions that
led to the risk taking by bankers, home buyers and consumers. Monetary
expansion, excessively low interest rates, the Greenspan/Bernanke Put,
disinterest in regulation, and pandering to politicians allowed the
party to get out of control. Taking away the punch bowl never crossed
their mind. The Federal Reserve is controlled by the major Wall Street
banks. These banks were partnerships until the 1980s, with partners
personally liable for the actions of their banks. Excessive risk taking
meant possible personal bankruptcy. Once they became corporations,
excessive risk meant excessive compensation for the executives, with the
downside being borne by the shareholders.

But that wasn’t enough. The executives were large shareholders, so
they convinced the Federal Reserve to bail their corporations out
whenever they made bad bets. It was a sweet deal if you were a banker.
Knowing their lackeys at the Fed had their back, the goliath Wall Street
banks used their power and wealth to convince the SEC to waive the 12
to 1 leverage rules so they could leverage their balance sheets 40 to 1.
This meant that a 5% loss in their capital and they would be insolvent.
The Harvard MBA CEO titans of the financial world created the housing
bubble through their creation of fraud inducing mortgage products, a
bewildering array of derivative products that even their MBA geniuses
didn’t understand, and betting against the derivatives they were selling
to their clients. When this toxic brew of fraud and debt exploded in
their faces, the value of the assets on their books plunged by 30% to
40% in 2008 and 2009. The 10 biggest financial institutions in the
country were effectively bankrupt. An orderly bankruptcy liquidation
that wiped out the bondholders, stockholders and top executives was the
solution to excessive risk taking and failure.

This was an unacceptable solution to the billionaire class that owns
half the financial wealth in the country. The President was a
multi-millionaire. The Treasury Secretary was a billionaire. There were
250 millionaires in Congress. The top executives of the banks that own
and control the Federal Reserve are multi-millionaires. The owners and
talking head pundits of the mainstream media are all in the
billionaire/millionaire class. The cover story used to bilk $700 billion
from middle class taxpayers into the coffers of Wall Street mega-banks
was that if we didn’t hand over the loot, the financial system would
collapse and a Great Depression would ensue. Every program, policy, and
rule change that has been rolled out since September 2008 by the Federal
Reserve, Treasury, and Congress has benefitted billionaires, bankers,
and politically connected corporations. The Federal Reserve has printed
over $2 trillion out of thin air to save the billionaires that have been
pillaging the middle class for decades.

The Federal Reserve bought $1.25 trillion of toxic mortgages from
Wall Street, allowed these banks to borrow at 0%, threatened the FASB
into suspending mark to market accounting so banks could fake the value
of their loans, instructed banks to rollover commercial real estate
loans as if they weren’t really worth 40% less than the value on their
books, and rolled out $600 billion of QE2 in order to create a stock
market rally, benefitting their billionaire constituents. The $800
billion stimulus program was shoveled to the corporate friends
(contributors) of Congressmen across the land. Cash for Clunkers
benefitted government owned car companies. The home buyer tax credit and
changing loss carry back rules benefitted mega home builders. Every one
of these deeds enriched bankers and billionaires while further
impoverishing the working middle class. Real middle class wages continue
to fall, unemployment remains near record levels, real inflation in
food and energy is running above 10%, senior citizens haven’t gotten a
Social Security increase in two years, savers are getting .25% on their
savings, home prices continue to fall, and future generations will be
stuck with the bill for the billionaire bailout.

The standard of living for the average American continues to fall.
Real household income is lower than it was in 1999. The only reason it
increased in the 1980s and 1990s was the huge influx of women into the
workforce. Two earners were needed to try and maintain a constant
standard of living. Real average weekly earnings are lower today than
they were in 1970, even using the government bastardized CPI calculation
that has been so massaged since 1982 that it has only resulted in a
happy ending for government bureaucrats at the BLS. Calculating the CPI
exactly as it was calculated in 1980 reveals the truth of what the
Federal Reserve has wrought on working class America, a drastic decrease
in their standard of living. The insidiousness of Federal Reserve
created inflation has sucked the life out of the middle class and
enriched the cocktail party class.

The stealth transfer of wealth from the working middle class to the
richest in our society was done through convincing the middle class that
buying things with debt made you richer. This delusion was sold by the
billionaire owned corporate mainstream media and peddled by billionaire
bankers to the masses through credit cards, “creative” mortgage
products, easy access to home “equity”, auto leases, and easy financing
products. Only in a society where a fiat currency could be printed by a
central bank with no requirement that it be pegged to an anchor such as
gold, could such a staggering amount of debt be accumulated.

Delusions of Debt

The bill that has been rung up is in the form of a national debt that
has increased by $4.6 trillion since September 2008, a 48% increase in
two and a half years. Over this same time frame real GDP has increased
by $200 billion, a 1.6% increase in two and a half years. Over this same
period, the Federal Reserve has tripled their balance sheet by adding
$2 trillion of debt. Think about this for one second. The leaders of the
great American empire have burdened future generations with $6.6
trillion of new debt and increased the Gross Domestic Product by $200
billion. Is this a good return on investment? Did the 30 million
unemployed and underemployed Americans benefit? Did the 45 million
people on food stamps benefit? Did the 11 million households who are
underwater in their mortgage benefit? Did the 3 million people who lost
their homes in foreclosure since 2008 benefit? Are Americans paying
twice as much for groceries and gasoline benefitting? Did the Tunisians,
Egyptians, and other poor people around the world benefit?

The answer to all these questions is NO. The only
beneficiaries have been bankers, billionaires, mega-corporations and the
politicians who were bought off by these greedy traitors to the
Republic. Anyone with an ounce of sense knows the country got into this
mess due to the issuance of mountains of debt that was un-payable based
upon any reasonable assessment of future cash flows to service the debt.
Consumers could never have increased their wages enough to pay off the
credit card, mortgage, home equity, student loan, and auto debt they
accumulated since 1980. The government could never collect the amount of
taxes needed to pay for the $100 trillion of entitlement promises they
have made over the last four decades. By 2008 we had reached peak debt
delusion.

The only questions that remained were how would the debt be defaulted
on and who would bear the brunt of the default. The Federal Reserve
Chairman and the U.S. Treasury Secretary rolled out a master plan that
revolved around convincing the masses they were being saved, while
actually enriching their masters on Wall Street. Their PR machine and
captured mouthpieces throughout the mainstream media and in Congress
spun the fear mongering message of Depression if the mega-banks were not
handed trillions of taxpayer funds.

The proof of what did not happen is borne out in the chart below,
showing the total credit market debt in the U.S.at $52.6 trillion, $200
billion higher than it was in 2008. If those who had collected billions
in fraudulent profits while using unprecedented levels of debt were
rightfully required to take responsibility for the catastrophe they
caused, the debt levels would have dropped dramatically. The losses
would have been borne by those responsible. The economy would have taken
a body blow, all Americans would have been hurt, and many billionaires
would have become millionaires or even paupers. The debt would have been
written off and lessons would have been learned. The remaining banks
(there are 8,000 others besides the 10 who control 50% of the deposits)
would have followed traditional risk mitigation methods and the economy
would have recovered.

But, as you can see, debt was not written off. No bankers were harmed
during the making of this fake recovery. No criminal bankers were
prosecuted. No government drones took responsibility for their failure.
While the masses were distracted by stimulus packages, mortgage
moratoriums, Obamacare and reality TV, the debt was shifted from the
criminally negligent banks to you. The proof is right on the Federal
Reserve website for all to see:

Corporations increased their debt from $7.0 trillion in 2008 to $7.4 trillion today.

Household debt declined from $13.8 trillion in 2008 to $13.4
trillion as the Federal Reserve backstopped the write-off of $600
billion of bad debt by the banks.

Over $6 trillion of toxic debt was shifted from the insolvent
financial industries to the middle class taxpayers under the guise of
“Saving the System”. Bad debt does not become good by shifting it to
taxpayers. The story line about Americans embracing austerity is false.
Household debt rose from $8 trillion in 2000 to $13.8 trillion in 2008, a
72% increase, and has declined by 3% due to write-offs, not austerity.

Champion of the Middle Class

By extending the debt, shifting it to the taxpayer and pretending it
is payable, the Federal Reserve and your government have chosen, to use
its weapon of choice since inception in 1913 – INFLATION, to default on
the debt. It is not a new tactic, it is their only tactic.

The Federal Reserve has slowly and methodically destroyed the
American middle class through relentlessly printing more money and
purposefully creating inflation, since its reprehensible creation in
1913. For the last three decades only one voice in the wilderness of
Washington DC has fought this banking cabal.

“Since the creation of the Federal Reserve, middle and
working-class Americans have been victimized by a boom-and-bust monetary
policy. In addition, most Americans have suffered a steadily eroding
purchasing power because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies.
This represents a real, if hidden, tax imposed on the American people.

From the Great Depression, to the stagflation of the seventies,
to the burst of the dotcom bubble last year, every economic downturn
suffered by the country over the last 80 years can be traced to Federal
Reserve policy. The Fed has followed a consistent policy of flooding the
economy with easy money, leading to a misallocation of resources and an
artificial “boom” followed by a recession or depression when the
Fed-created bubble bursts. In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, I urge my
colleagues to stand up for working Americans by putting an end to the
manipulation of the money supply which erodes Americans’ standard of
living, enlarges big government, and enriches well-connected elites, by
cosponsoring my legislation to abolish the Federal Reserve.” – Ron Paul – Sept 10, 2002

His colleagues in Congress did not stand up to the Federal Reserve in
2002. Instead, they cheered them on as Greenspan’s ultra loose monetary
policy led to the greatest housing bubble in history and a financial
collapse unparalleled in human history. As the collapse was hurdling
down the track in 2006, Representative Paul once again rose in protest
against an organization that is rapidly destroying the American dream.

“The coming dollar crisis is not likely to be “fixed” by
politicians who are unwilling to make hard choices, admit mistakes, and
spend less money. Demographic trends will place even greater demands on
Congress to maintain benefits for millions of older Americans who are
dependent on the federal government.

Faced with uncomfortable financial realities, Congress will seek
to avoid the day of reckoning by the most expedient means available –
and the Federal Reserve undoubtedly will accommodate Washington by
printing more dollars to pay the bills. The Fed is the enabler for the
spending addicts in Congress, who would rather spend new fiat money than
face the political consequences of raising taxes or borrowing more
abroad.

The irony is that many of the Fed’s biggest cheerleaders are the
same supposed capitalists who denounced centralized economic planning
when practiced by the former Soviet Union. Large banks and Wall Street
firms love the Fed’s easy money policy, because they profit at the front
end from the resulting loan boom and artificially high equity prices.
It’s the little guy who loses when the inflated dollars finally trickle
down to him and erode his buying power. Someday Americans will
understand that Federal Reserve bankers have no magic ability – and
certainly no legal or moral right – to decide how much money should
exist and what the cost of borrowing money should be.” – Ron Paul – July 11, 2006

The dollar crisis is upon us. Congress and President Obama are
avoiding the day of reckoning. The Federal Reserve is enabling
profligate spending by politicians, while at the same time enriching
their masters on Wall Street. Everything being done in Washington DC
seems to be the exact opposite of what should be done. I think the fable
of the scorpion and the frog describes our situation best. The scorpion
asks a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid of being
stung, but the scorpion argues that if it stung, the frog would sink and
the scorpion would drown. The frog agrees and the scorpion stings the
frog during the crossing, dooming them both. When asked why, the
scorpion points out that this is its nature. The Federal Reserve is
printing money, creating inflation, enriching billionaire bankers, and
dooming the country to certain collapse because that is its nature.

My intentions have been foiled again. I realize that my attempt to
put our current economic predicament into perspective will now need to
be a five part series. . For a Few Dollars Moreaddressed the Baby Boomer impact on America’s decline. A Fistful of Dollarsexamined
how the Federal Reserve’s actions over the last few decades have
impoverished the middle class and has placed the country at the brink of
collapse, The Good, the Bad, and the Uglywill
address the nefarious creation of a central bank and the implementation
of a personal income tax in the dreadful year 1913. Outlaw Josey Waleswill
scrutinize the looting of America by a small group of powerful,
connected, super rich men lurking in the shadows, but pulling the
strings on our puppet politicians. Lastly, Unforgiven will detail the impending collapse of our economic system and the retribution that will be handed out to the guilty.

Comment viewing options

Still waiting for the uprising of the U.S. citizenry against the obvious criminal perpetrators... wonder how long i'll be waiting for? I'm sure it won't be long now, after all, it is the self-proclaimed land of the brave, home of the free... they won't tolerate this tyranny for long i'm sure.

'It is not easy to destroy the greatest empire in the history of mankind. The 20th Century was the American Century, but as with all empires, the combination of hubris...'

Empire, what empire?

You never had a fucking empire, you've simply spent the last 80 years funding the British Commonwealth and trying to buy friends in the middle east.

You don't know the meaning of the word. In what country did you install your government or an arm of it, or do you consider anyone who ever said good morning or blatantly took your cash for free to be part of your 'empire'?

Absolute drivel I'm afraid, it started off badly and didn't get any better...

I just sent out an S.O.S. to my friends to join me in revolution. I included this article for their education & added a note in my email that our children & grandchildren are going to have a shit life if we don't revolt with pitchforks & rope. ................. no one emailed me back ! I'm sitting here with my sturdy shoes & my pitchfork & none of my friends give a damn. I wish I didn't care so much, my friends either don't understand or they don't care.

have you seen the lazy fat fucks....they can't even raise up out of their smashed recliner....you think these fucks are going to lead the needed revolution...our only choice is to take care of our own..you know like we used to....we will never rise up as one...that courage has been stripped away from the majority....

your moment has come, your friends moment will come... you have to wait for the economy to go down again, your friends attitude will sour and anger with it ...and when we're near bottom, send your email again before they beat you to it themselves!

for revolution we need only to stop paying our taxes, very simple even for a couch potato ....the people and small business and not all but far fewer than you imagine, maybe 5-10% would be enough to topple this sham ediface that masks parasites behind another sham, the word "democracy"

Unfortunately the parasites (40% or more) do not pay taxes and they have no incentive. A true return to constitutional republic will force them to go to work, even though they may not have to pay taxes still.

Unfortunately, you both missed the "double catch"! One says stop paying taxes while the other demonizes "the parasites"! The parasites are doing their job! Not paying taxes and bleeding the BEAST dry. Why attack them? You can't beat them, join!

I paid a shit-load of taxes for years only to be spit on and watch my tax money bailout the wealthy corrupt. Now, I'm happily on unenjoyment getting my tax money back! So, what does that make me? Parasite, Revolutionary, or Patriot? Doesn't matter, happy to be rid of the ever-expanding work week with declining wages that supports unethical, rich assholes. Trading it in for a second paid summer on the beach, watching babes drinking Margaritasssssss!!!!!!!

Oracle, the "Constitutional Republic" was set up by top dog parasites, that's precisely what government is whatever label you put on it, whatever string of lovely but ultimately vacuous words you sugar coat it in. The 40% of parasites that pay no tax is called socialism.

The only solution is a free society. This gives you the power to decide who you give charity too rather than the wishful thinking of giving your power to a parsitical organisation, entrusting it to rob you of your income and give away your money wisely (no chance).

Govt is the problem, not the solution... it's also the dumbest idea and most corrupt lie society has ever swallowed

No one has the right to steal from you, not govt nor anyone else, yet if I make two staff unemployed I am outvoted and they have the right and the ability to vote for anyone who proposes to take what's rightfully mine in the name of the govt and hand it to them on a plate.

It's still theft. Socialism should be called what it is, legalised robbery.

"The dollar crisis is upon us. Congress and President Obama are avoiding the day of reckoning."

They can avoid no longer, the day of reckoning is here, we were in the eye of the hurricane (entering in 07/08) now we are stepping back in. They won't stop printing fiat money into oblivion. Therefore we know the ending. Peace will come when we end up back on a Hard asset monetary system, whether that be oil, gold, silver or a combination. We inevitably, will end up there.

Quinn has a fix for the dollar crisis, exterminate the Boomers, and poof away goes the future liabilties and the dollar rallies.

I'm not sure but I think if you add up all the hard assets the Boomers have helped to create and the hard assets the government owns it exceeds the 14 trillion debt.

Last time I checked net worth was part of the credit worthiness equation and faith in the currency.

Like I said Quinn it's your generation that created HFT, algo's, quants, etc, etc. Because you were raised on a joystick and in a fake reality. So get your generation back into the real world and out of the world of bits and bytes and everything will be just fine.

In return we ask you boomers to quit piling debt on our children. Cut social security and medicare ten percent now. Raise the retirement age for full bennies to 67 as of may 1 2011. Everyone should contribute. The austerity should not be just for those under 55.

" Quinn has a fix for the dollar crisis, exterminate the Boomers, and poof away goes the future liabilties and the dollar rallies."

!! now they want me dead & gone !! ~~ I remember a time when I was loved & adored ! oh, about 20 years ago in my 40's when I was busy making that all-American family, raising kids, buying all the things that kids needed, going to TOYS R US & making sure that my children had a Christmas, spending money on houses & cars & car insurance when my kids were teenagers; I remember when I was beloved for paying all that social security taxes into the system ( you all remember when GREENSPAN doubled the social security tax on the boomers in 1983 right ? ) , paying all that Federal Income Tax (fraud) into the system. They loved me at the car dealership when I sat there & helped my teens each buy their first car, you know, good old Mom kicks in the downpayment ..........

They used to love me ! I was beloved when my wallet was open to pay for toys, cars, house, insurances, school fees, back to school clothes, more toys, more clothes, property taxes, more insurances for teenage drivers.......... BLAH !

NOW THAT I AM OLDER THEY WANT ME DEAD ! the entire situation is outrageous.

Don't worry lynnybee nobody is kicking the boomers to the curb. We are the largest voting block and we have one thing on our mind. Gen X and Gen Y are going to pony up the full cost of our retirements or they're going to face the full force of the "state". Start messing with SS and the boomers will look for a demagogue to set things right. By any means necessary.

I've paid SS for 40 years. I put up with Nixon doubling benefits with his bogus inflation formula. I paid extra because Greedscam wanted to fill an imaginary "lock box". I got socked again in the early 90s when Ted "Chappaquidick" Kennedy removed the limit on medicare wages. The most regressive tax of all.

I've paid property taxes to fund the gold-plated education of Gen X and Gen Y. Why did I do that? Because you are all the unique "snowflakes" that mommy said you were? No. I wanted you to get educated and productive so you could contribute to this country's social contract.

As it turns out the laugh is on me, because I got too educated, made too much money and saved too much. My SS will be taxed away. But I have friends and family who tried, but couldn't. So you're paying.

Not me buddy! Coming from a Generation X'er who sees this system for what it is.......unethical, corrupt, immoral, prejudiced, unConstitutional, unfair and really ass-backwards silly! Almost like war, I'm on my second campaign of unenjoyment in the last 8 years, only this campaign was logistically planned better. Call it, getting my money back.

So your solution is to pile debt on children too young to vote. All of you are proving the point about your selfishness. Future generations will know the progeny of the greatest generation became the most selfish generation of all.

You seem to conveniently forget that the governments you elected (and whose tax demands you paid) were always running at a loss (i.e. spending more than they took in, in taxes). So your generation spent more than it earned.

Better suck it up 'cos Gen X and Y will emigrate or stop paying taxes rather than suffer your gen's entitlement complex.

Pick your numbers as they suit you! You think the hard assets also exceed the $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities? Oh, I forgot, if you exterminate the Boomers, (most of) the liabilities go away too. That could actually work!

But on the other hand, we don't need to exterminate them, just cut their entitlements to zero. Much more humane, and also makes the debt situation manageable again.

Note: Who finds irony in this text may keep it.

Propaganda 101: Who doesn't like an opinion declares the speaker to be a non-person / beast / vermin. When are you going to take that step, BSN?

DP, btw thanks for the backround on Quinn. My opinion on all that is, personally I don't care too much if he molested sheep, has childish responses that would seem to discredit his material or calls us anarchists. Material is material and at this stage in the game we could use more help getting knowledge out. Whether some of the stuff is plagerized is irrelevant because this type of info needs to be out there regardless of where it came from or who was the originator. It's quite obvious we are in the end game and are severly outnumbered. We should look past petty shit and just focus on the issues and what we can do going forward.

Quinn, are you going to also provde a plan on (in your opinion) of what are our options are or what the average person can do? It's great to give doom and gloom knowledge to people that don't know whats going on but we need to tie in how the average person can help fix it. Otherwise they feel helpless and won't realize it is because of their ignorance (partly) by contributing to these companies and the system that they are able to get away with this shit.

This DP (David Pierre) guy is a liar who hates Jim Quinn and copies and pastes stuff that others have written to make it look like Quinn wrote it. He stalks Quinn and tries to destroy his reputation. Quinn is not a racist. DP is, in fact, a liar.

I agree this guy is a fucking loser and I don't know why ZH even post his Bullshit. He think every body who doesn't produce should be killed so his own arrogant ass can wreck all the benefits. What a twit.

First of all, I'm NOT a boomer. If you read his past post he clearly states Elderly, Sick and Disabled should all be killed so he and all the poor working slaves can MAKE ALL THE FUCKING MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!! If he wants a class war, so be it, I'll be happy to give it to him if he has the balls enough to meet me some place so we can settle this like man, NOT behind a blog which only proves he is a pussy.

Every single CONgress since WW II has piled debt on the next generation. The generational warfare shit is a distraction from the actual perps of the looting and theft. So cut the mindless bullshit and open your eyes.

Medicare/Medicaid is out of control - we need to stop paying for kidney transplants in 86 yo men, hip replacements at age 86, hovarounds for every senior etc etc. We also need to stop paying for nursing home care for any but the indigent - those who have families can take care of their own. We also need to get rid of the SSI-Disability payments...that's another scam.

But, all of that can happen at the same time that we stop subsidizing the corporations, including banks and farmers, for anything. Then we need to get rid of government unions, The Depts of Energy, Education, HHS, the EPA, DHS, and downsize the Defense budget by 2/3 right after bringing all the troops home from overseas. Then slap import duties on junk from China, India, Korea.

I could go on and on - basically, if we rolled back expenditures to 1980 and stopped being a policeman to the world, we'd have a balanced budget. Oh, and we could probably cut taxes as well.

We need a gold standard, because a gold standard would require that only the really important benefits and services would be funded, and every lead swinging malingering bastard would have to get off his sorry arse and work for a living...

Got a bad back, starve... or pick up a pen, or maybe put on a headset and try selling something...

Life's tough, without credit, for politicians who are supposed to decide how best to lead this and every other country.

But I'm finding it hard hearing boomers who've voted themselves every benefit argue that the youngsters should now pay for their retirement despite no hope whatsoever of having anything left for themselves. Go back to your families. You have no other choice.

You're knowledge of history is spotty. The greatest generation increased SS and medicare from a safety net to something much, much more expensive. They were the ones that changed the program from pay as you go to the bogus "trust fund" arrangement that caused boomers to overpay their FICA for the last 30 years. Who do you think made promises to the boomers?

Well that's all water under the bridge now. It's your turn and you're paying. Get your head wrapped around it. I could give a dozen reasons why you should, but I don't give a f#ck. We're the largest voting bloc and you're paying or you're going to feel the full force of the "state".

Hahaha, full force of the state! Is that the same state that mobilized during Katrina?! Hahahaha! Little do you know, the boomer morons in control are scared of the youth......why do you think we have so many troops abroad?

Not yet at least! Wait until all the subsidies disappear.......and 16 year old Jerome has his 9 pressed against your temple! As for power.......I just want to be left alone. Meaning: No cameras on lights, no drug-tests, no background checks, No patriot act, NO STUPID F'ING LAWS THAT SET SOCIETY BACK 30 YEARS!

You don't have any power, either. Misery loves company, right? We'll make a deal, I agree to pay an effective 50-70% income tax rate, forever, while you aren't able to sell your house for nearly as much money as you'd like. It's a deal then, that's the only deal we have offered to us. Kind of like Monty Hall's show, except everything's a ZONK! Ho ho, The Death of the Republic Game, by Milton-Bradley, fun for the whole family, from Great-Grandpa D-Day to the toddler that will have to learn Manadrin soon. And in this game, you LOSE Monopoly Money, guaranteed! Though I can vent with the best of them, this inter-generational nonsense is a parlor game, a lovely charade on the deck of the Luisitania. Second torpedo on its way... we can all enjoy the fun 'n excitement together, here on Spaceship Earth. Last one to the reeducation camp is a rotten egg!

SmokeyQuinn lives in a surreal world of Hollywood lies with pop culture overlays to buttress his mindless drivel which is designed to divide to conquer. Go challenge him on almost any topic, but especially about 9-11, on his blog and discover the totality of his depravity and obscene bestiality as he responds using his various aliases. SmokeyQuinn is just another Useful Idiot... a troll for TPTB.

1947:

Hollywood rushes to do the bidding of the ruling class once again.

America's most powerful propaganda instrument turns out an endless stream of movies designed to heighten the American public's terror of the mythical but very convenient enemy, communism. Audiences across America tremble at the sight of I Married A Communist, Red Planet Mars, The Red Menace, The Red Danube, I Was A Communist For The FBI and many more.

"I have the greatest admiration for your propaganda. Propaganda in the West is carried out by experts who have had the best training in the world — in the field of advertising — and have mastered the techniques with exceptional proficiency. Yours are subtle and persuasive; ours are crude and obvious. I think that the fundamental difference between our worlds, with respect to propaganda, is quite simple. You tend to believe yours and we tend to disbelieve ours."

Aw... come on SmokeyQuinn ...you know how much you need to be Bitch Slapped to be brought back to reality.

Spaghetti Westerns are not real.

Sure you would like to be Clint Eastwood but face up to it... you ain't ever going to be. That old horse opera series was trite and useless drivel long before you were even born. Stop with the fantasies ... you are a big boy now.

I know how much you love pop fiction and believe everything you are told by the magic lantern moving pictures. I hate to break it to you son... but it was not Santa Osama and his Merry band of 19 elves that did 9-11.

It's good to see that you killed off your alias, 'Smokey', under which you commented on your own blog. See some progress is being made with your Bi-Polar problems. But damn! You are some slow on the uptake since your former webmaster outed you over a year ago for your fakery and lies.

And.... I am some proud of you for deleting your 30 Blocks of Racism threads off your blog. See... progress is possible even for someone from the slow learners class like you.

We all now know what your got on your IQ tests... DROOL !

So yes... I am happy to use you as my Bitch on ZH. Keep the tripe pumping out... cut and paste to your little heart's content. Fantasize and bluster to infinity for all I care. I offered you a truce years ago and you replied with the usual obscenities.

So you go... "Back to the barn" to relieve you sexual tensions on that big fat pet ewe, Avalon. Someday the SPCA is going to catch you in your perverse bestiality habits. Till then have a lousy day... MORON.

I normally give Quinn a pasting for diverting blame in the wrong direction in his posts, but in this episode he lays it squarely in exactly the right places ... even if Greedspan gets off a little lightly, IMO, and FDR doesn't even crack a mention.

Kudos to him for highlighing Ron Paul's warnings ... but raspberries to anyone who thinks that Paul could fix anything without a majority supporting him through the House, the Senate, the Administration and the S.Court.

The Federal Government must be disbanded before any meaningful solution can be attempted.

When we reject first premises, like the rule of law, property rights, self determination, blind justice, and adopt the cancer of imperialism and paternalism the eventual demise was foreseeable. It amazes me how complacent sheep we have all become.

They've never respected your property. They take it as they wish. They expect you to respect theirs, however.

Likewise their "rule of law" is for you, not for them. If they were subjected to their own rules, they would lose their only method of funding--extortion.

It is now as it always has been: might makes right.

The mistake was in the adherence to a premise, not the rejection of one. The premise of legitimacy--the license given to a ruler to pillage individuals for the benefit of "The People"" (an abstraction curiously devoid of actual people) or "The Church" or any other suitable "legitimate cause" as found throughout history--cause, that is, for sacrifice.

Give us a list of those thirty thousand. Remember fifty percent gasoline and fifty percent styrofoam makes a great generic napalm. You can launch it with giant slingshot or build homemade rocket launcher. Instructions are all over you tube and the internet. Make Texas Gunslinger proud.

" The Boomers were a victim of their size and the timing of their arrival on the scene of empire collapse. Their delusions of debt based wealth and me first attitude could not have been satiated without the creation of the Federal Reserve and the institution of the personal income tax in 1913."

Tighten up, Tyler... or did you not notice that it has been SENIORS who have been POWERING the Right-Wing Rethuglican JIHAD against the Social Safety net?! (except for THEIR OWN Medicare & Social Security. Of course the Neo-Con obama White House just plowed through that last distinction, not giving 'em (seniors) a COLA (inflation allowance) for past 2 years, using the Orszag/Lew/Summers/Bernstein (et al) cooked inflation numbers.)

This is THE CRUCIAL DISTINCTION of today's economic meltdown: the Obama White House are NOT "Keynsians" they are using RUBINOMICS:

When the banksters have looted & extorted every dime of above, DRIVING THEIR OWN BANKS into bankruptcy (because now customers are NOT paying their mortgages and other loans back), go to DIRECT EXTORTION of taxpayers, eg "bailouts"

using the SELF-INFLICTED DISASTER of above, go to WHOLESALE PRINTING of money, which lands SOLELY in bank vaults (electronic balance sheets) of member/owner banks. This is back-door THEFT of savings (by inflationary money printing), which, AGAIN, allows bankers getting all that Fed fiat Bernanke bucks to go on a NEW round of LBO predatory buyouts (that FURTHER jack up inflationary prices for real assets, commodities, & consumer necessities.)

This 5 pronged attack of Parasitic Finance (Rubinomics) is NOT "Keynsian," and is NOT "stimulus" ! In a word, it is STEALING money, and giving it to bankers.

KEYNSES was concerned about using govt. spending to PUT LATENT INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY TO USE, especially in regards to HIRING WORKERS, which would (with efficient management) create REAL demand for industry & production.

btw, EVEN FDR's "New Deal" as we remember it was NOT pure Keynsian economics! For example, the architect of Roosevelt's GOLD CONFISCATION was... his Treasury Secretary, (hello?) HENRY MORGANTHAU, and the architect of much of FDR's economic policy was (hello?) BERNARD BARUCH... a well connected NY/"multi-national" (radical right-wing conservative) banker! It was WWII production, NOT Roosevelt's New Deal, which proved Keynes correct - YOU COULD use BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDING to STIMULATE PRODUCTION, industry, & the economy, AS LONG AS YOU REIGNED IN Big Finance & the predatory lenders!

ps: you are correct about "" The Boomers were a victim of their size and the timing of their arrival on the scene of empire collapse."

World resources COULD sustain the post-WWII human population... and even (with the technology genie of industrialized, oil-based agriculture), several decades worth of post-WWII human population growth.

Here, too, the SENIORS (who own so much wealth & thus political power) ARE AS MUCH TO BLAME as the Boomers !!

During the Cold War & Vietnam war era, the US govt. PARTICIPATED in BIRTH CONTROL & Family Planning programs worldwide, because the way to SHOWCASE "WESTERN PROGRESS" was with INCREASED PROSPERITY, which REQUIRED a lower birthrate!

Come the end of the Cold War, the Neo-Cons (former "liberals" when they were against WASP SEGREGATIONISTS... now the NY, DC 'intelligentisa' & financial elites are ALLIED WITH the regressive, neo-segregation reactionary elites) DITCHED their embrace of family planning & other attributes of a democratic, progressive, "liberal" foreign policy, and GOT IN BED with even more RADICAL, REACTIONARY regimes overseas (eg Saudis, Kuwait, Bahrain, etc. or even "democratic" India).... there is plenty of blame to go around, the "PRO-GROWTH crowd, the RELIGIOUS crowds, the so-called "liberal press/media," for the REACTIONARY "winner take all" genocidal politics behind our NEGLECT of world overpopulation, which is the Alpha & Omega of global warming, resource competition, genocidal politics, imperial wars, etc. - EVERY generation in USA today is/are now turning their backs on WHAT WORKED for the "lower birth rate" post-WWII era or American prosperity, in favor of UNRESTRICTED (& ultimately genocidal) resource devouring growth.

It’s kind of suspicious to me that just when the first baby boomers got to the end of the rainbow, there’s Lloyd Blankfein standing there with his little smirk and analytical report, explaining to them why all their gold is gone.

And along side Lloyd is Robert Rubin, one of the main engineers of the global financial collapse with a roughly $15 million per-year Citigroup pay package for a job that required him merely to travel the world meeting with clients, telling boomers Social Security benefits need to be cut.That’s in the Obama-Goldman Sachs-Robert Rubin road map for social security “reform”to increase the retirement age while cutting benefits.

As for the baby boom cohort now in its peak saving years (now ages 46-65), things are not so rich.Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in January 2010 gave these statistics:

But as retirement begins, the boomers find that mysteriously that dream has been stolen.And standing in that now empty space where the pot of SS and Medicare gold were stored for the end of life's rainbow are the obscenely wealthy, criminal investment bankers who’ve used their political connections and control of the money supply to take every last dime they could bag.

The timing on the SS controversy is just this simple. When the "Greedscam" commission "saved" SS in the early 80s, they changed SS from "pay as you go" to the "trust fund". Under the new arrangment more FICA was collected than needed. The excess was placed in a non-existant "lock box". The excess provided Reagan and subsequent presidents with a handy slush fund to spend on their friends. Needless to say everyone loved SS. However some time in the future the "lock box" was going to start paying out and politicians would have to not only cut their friends off, but they'd have to find more to fund the payout. The original estimated date for this was 2017. But because of the economic implosion, it is happening now. Needless to say every politician in America now hates SS, and wants to kill it.

"It’s kind of suspicious to me that just when the first baby boomers got to the end of the rainbow, there’s Lloyd Blankfein standing there with his little smirk and analytical report, explaining to them why all their gold is gone.

And along side Lloyd is Robert Rubin, one of the main engineers of the global financial collapse"

Deregulation does not equal looting/pillaging/raping. The government is incompetent at everything it attempts to do. That includes regulating. Look at the financial crises. Who was supposedly regulating those jerks on wall street. The government. Centralized power is always corrupted and manipulated. A decentralized free market which regulates and cannot be hijacked is the only hope for stability.

Obama isn't a pure Keynesian as you said. He is much too ignorant of history and economics to be able to be loyal to a single theory.

I get the feeling that you believe if Keynesian policies had a shot, they would provide us prosperity. When in the history of mankind has centralized planning (similar to Keynesianism) ever worked?

Government manipulation of markets would not create real demand as you claim. Look at the housing market crash for a great example of that. When the government attempts to incentivize certain unsustainable behavior, it creates bubbles. Which burst.

How could the death of millions, the destruction of millions of peoples lives, the destruction of economies, the rationing of food, clothing and goods, be a win for the Keynesian argument. WWII did not resolve the issues that caused the depression. Freedoms given back to the people after the war effort dissolved resolved the issues of the depression..

You appear to be unaware that the neocons started out in the Democratic Party (under Vice-Pres Humphrey's wing), then jumped ship to the Republicans when it became obvious that Humphrey would lose to Nixon. (Kissinger even helped Nixon while he was still a Democrat). Some, like Richard Perle, are still registered Democrats. Brzezinski (Carter's National Security Adviser and the engineer of CIA involvement in Afghanistan) had one son in McCain's inner circle and one in O'bomber's during the last election campaign. The list goes on...........

Others at ZH have called for killing off granny to solve the SS problem. Anyone who favors that should understand that there are more likely solutions, particularly if elders perceived that they are being threatened.

Personally I have no use for authoritarianism, but I understand self-defense. And you should understand that the elderly of modest means (the vast majority of elders) will do whatever it takes to preserve their benefits. They don't care.

Does it possess vast overseas colonies? Does it preserve its territory by force? Where are

these massive sesession movements?

There are concrete external financial obligations of around 14

trillion Dollars which are substantial but can be served. There are much broader other government obligations which are unsustainable and should be restructured. Both can be done without triggering fiscal crisis. What is then your F...ing problem?

Since Mr. Quinn may be too busy to field the marginal questions, perhaps I’ll help out a little and give this one a try.

In 1898, the British Empire (by the way that was a real empire) maintained 36 major military installations outside of the mother country.

Not only does the American Empire (also a real empire) now maintain 38 major military complexes for its fleets and bomber squadrons, but at count 2005 owned more than 730 military bases outside of the U.S.U.S. military structures outside the U.S. encompassed 687,000 acres and surrounding land more than 29,000,000 acres.

None of this counts foreign country military installations the U.S. is allowed to use; more than 20 sites in Turkey alone, for example.

Political experts call these military base arrangements "the new form of colonies."

This military reach of a superpower is the underpinning for the Empire. This leverage opens the door for the multinational corporations to reap windfalls from foreign political leaders for lucrative contracts for manufacturing sites and resource development.This military power stops competing nations from expansion and from development projects of their own.

When U.S. state department officials meet diplomats from other countries they carry lead inside their boxing gloves - because of U.S. military presence, not in the United States, but perhaps in the very location being considered.

The U.S. Military budget, larger than military spending of all of the rest of the world combined, is the underpinning of yet the most critical feature of the Empire.Unlike the Romans and the British who were forced to confine their reach to their financial limits, no such hurdle exists for the United States. Here the Federal Reserve bankers have the ability to create war without end, financed out of thin air by ownership of the world's reserve currency.

JR: An empire exists where you exert control, like the British did when they installed a government and you did as you were fucking told, either that or they shot you. A bit like the Americas did until the revolution. That's empire. Establishing a military base BY AGREEMENT having sought PERMISSION and having it closed from under you when your LEASE has run out is not empire. Simply putting your troops in front of someone else's country at your own expense is summed up in one word. Suckers.

'Political experts call these military base arrangements "the new form of colonies.' - WTF is a 'political expert'? Truth is they can call it what they please, you place your troops at your expense on German soil (for example) whilst they make their own decisions as to what they wish to do, to keep you there or otherwise and you call that empire? Rubbish.

This military reach of a superpower is the underpinning for the Empire.' so by this argument the fact that the UK can wipe the US from the face of the planet several times over means you're still part of the British Empire does it? I think not.

And as for this, 'This military reach of a superpower is the underpinning for the Empire. This leverage opens the door for the multinational corporations to reap windfalls from foreign political leaders for lucrative contracts for manufacturing sites and resource development. This military power stops competing nations from expansion and from development projects of their own.' - Well you certainly managed that well in China didn't you, or are you still whining now because they ignore you? The British, the Spanish, Portuguese and French had an empire because they installed a government. All you have done is to pay through the nose for influence, not control, and then take your rubbish home with you when you were told to leave.

This has got to be the worst attempt to justify the simple fact that the US is the biggest sucker on the planet, that you have spent yourselves to death to protect everyone else so that we didn't have to and you did it without any empire whatsoever. If you really believe this 'Unlike the Romans and the British who were forced to confine their reach to their financial limits, no such hurdle exists for the United States' then perhaps you should leave the next attempt to Mr Quinn or someone else with a somewhat firmer grip on reality.

Well, to give him the benefit of the doubt, the US does currently possess a number of overseas territories that allow it to project force globally and it exerts undue influence on a number of other states that render them virtual protectorates to do its bidding. That sounds very much like a politically-correct version of an empire. That its leadership is too inept to artfully steer the course of the empire in the graceful way that Romans or Britons did in years past is merely the failing of the patrician class to keep a proper persepctive on who is really running the show and to what end. There are very few people taking a long-term, results-oriented view, which is no doubt the result of a culture suffering pandemic ADD and anxiety.

“The world is drowning in corporate fraud,” says Columbia University economist Jeffrey D. Sachs, “and the problems are probably greatest in rich countries – those with supposedly ‘good governance.’ Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich countries that host the global companies that carry out the largest offenses. Money talks, and it is corrupting politics and markets all over the world.”

Sachs has written a scathing attack on Wall Street and corporate criminals, observing that they pay no real penalties for extensive plunder, covering their activities with political payola and armies of lawyers.

“Corporate corruption,” says Sachs, “is out of control for two main reasons. First, big companies are now multinational, while governments remain national. Big companies are so financially powerful that governments are afraid to take them on.

“Second, companies are the major funders of political campaigns in places like the US, while politicians themselves are often part owners, or at least the silent beneficiaries of corporate profits. Roughly one-half of US Congressmen are millionaires, and many have close ties to companies even before they arrive in Congress…

“So the next time you hear about a corruption scandal in Africa or other poor region, ask where it started and who is doing the corrupting. Neither the US nor any other “advanced” country should be pointing the finger at poor countries, for it is often the most powerful global companies that have created the problem.”

A powerful story – The Global Economy’s Corporate Crime Wave - and it would have been perfect if Sachs had added one more paragraph. And that is that these multinational corporations and their corrupt policies of overcoming the political system are aided by none other than the United States government - with its power and purse controlled by a small group of private bankers.By using fiat currency, no obstacle is too large to be overcome by Fed-created power and money, whether it’s to eliminate a competitor or commandeer the total resources of a developing country by profiteering.

Nor is any Congressional project too big to be paid for by these bankers stealing value from American citizens - enriching themselves and the creators of the projects.

"We have a corporate fascist economic system where a small cartel of bankers, military weapons suppliers, and mega-corporations set the agenda for the country through their complete capture of politicians and the mainstream corporate media".

B.I.N.G.O....

They should make the children say this every morning in school before thier day begins,they way they used to make us say the lords prayer.

Actually Glass-Steagall concentrates the crunch on the fraudulent sectors.

While it isn't a picnic, it avoids a new dark age.

Best way to deal with a fucked up system?

Put the entire system (or at least everything America has) through a Glass-Steagall reorganization.

Let everything within our system be tested against it's standards. That which don't meet it, are locked away and forbidden to be traded...i.e. worth 0.

Everything else can remain, although some stuff will have haircuts attached since we'll have a lower baseline with a stronger dollar.

American Credit System, not a Federal Reserve controlled fraudulent debt based monetary system, that uses Imperialism's advertiser friendly name of Globalization as the structure for which to do its damage.

Just remember, there is no need to pay off fraudulent debt. Wrote a law about it...Like to hear it....here it goes.

This is better than the last installment, which bashed the Boomers a little too hard.

I'm in Gen-X, & get that most of the bad decisions of the 08 crisis were made by Boomers, but at 76 million strong there are more than a few million of them that are fiscally responsible & want reform. We can't stop the coming wave of fiscal restructuring, but we can individually buy metals to surf it to safety.

Anyway, Jim Quinn is a good writer & I look forward to the rest of this series.

Major entitlement cuts, a very good fiscal proposition on on hand, will result in severe forced austerity. The PTB will "talk" about this problem, but "act" they will not. Vote "getting" is thier one and only goal.

My children will know I tried, and hopefully suceed in insulating them from the coming events.

I don't hate the tea party, but so far remain unimpressed. I hope the adherents can make a difference. However, politicians are politicians....

Thier is much more grief to come, probably decades.

I aplogize for being so pessimistic. I find that a safe way to play coming events as I see them. Anything better, is, well, great.